Parades near Columbia, SC in the spring

St. Pat's in Five Points Parade

Columbia's biggest spring parade, and the one most people in the Midlands mean when they say "the parade." It runs down Devine Street through Shandon and turns into Five Points, where a ticketed street festival with live music and a 5K takes over for the rest of the day. Watching the parade itself costs nothing: the festival gates sit further along the route, so families regularly come for the floats and leave before the music starts. Expect thousands of people and street-parking-only around Shandon.

Shamrock Parade, Lexington

A small-town St. Patrick's parade down Main Street in downtown Lexington, presented by the Lexington County Blowfish baseball club. It is a mid-afternoon Sunday event rather than a morning one, which makes it easy to pair with lunch downtown, and the line-up leans local: Irish dancers, school bands, floats, pageant winners and the odd novelty train. The Lexington Chamber runs a separate Shamrock Festival kids' zone around the same weekend. It is much smaller than Columbia's St. Pat's, which is the point for a lot of families.

Tartan Day South Parade of Celtic Nations

The Midlands' Highland games, held at the old Columbia Speedway in Cayce. The parade here is not a street parade: it is the Parade of Celtic Nations, when the clans and societies march onto the athletic field at midday to open the Saturday main event. Around it you get caber tossing, massed pipe bands, herding dogs, birds of prey and a British car show. Note that Saturday is the ticketed day, while the Thursday kickoff and Sunday Kirkin' of the Tartans are free and held elsewhere in Cayce, West Columbia and Lexington.

Lower Richland Sweet Potato Festival Parade

A free community festival at Hopkins Park, about twenty minutes southeast of downtown Columbia, that opens with a parade at eleven and then runs all afternoon. The programme is built around local performers rather than touring acts: praise dancers, step teams, a drum line, live bands, a health fair and a kids' fun zone. Organisers describe it as having grown from a small neighbourhood event into one that pulls people from surrounding counties. It is alcohol- and smoke-free, no tents are allowed, and people bring lawn chairs.

Purple Martin Festival Parade, St. Matthews

Calhoun County's spring festival, named for the purple martins that return to St. Matthews each year and treated locally as the official start of the season. The parade comes down Bridge Street on the Saturday morning and hands off to a full day on the courthouse grounds with music, vendors, food trucks and carnival rides. It is a genuinely small-town affair about half an hour southeast of Columbia, and the organisers publish very little online ahead of time, so the county's Facebook page is usually where the year's date appears first.

Striped Bass Festival Parade, Manning

Clarendon County's big spring weekend, running since 1980 and built around the striped bass fishing on the Santee Cooper lakes. Saturday, known locally as Super Saturday, opens with the hometown parade at ten and then fills Courthouse Square with vendors, rides and live music; the fishing tournament weigh-in is a spectator event in its own right. Around twenty thousand people typically turn out. Watching costs nothing, though the tournament and the food and craft stalls do charge. It is roughly an hour east of Columbia.

Puddin' Swamp Festival Parade, Turbeville

A three-day hometown festival in Turbeville, the farthest of these from Columbia at a bit over an hour east. Friday evening is rides and a band, Saturday opens with the parade through downtown and then runs all day with opening ceremonies, pageant winners, an art show and a car, truck and bike show, and Sunday is gospel and beach music. Organisers talk about it as a reunion as much as a festival: people who moved away come back for the weekend. The festival grounds have moved around in recent years while the new town library is built, so check the current layout before you go.

Eastover BBQ Festival & Parade

One of the oldest events on this list, now in its forties, and the closest thing to a classic small-town barbecue parade near Columbia: about twenty-five minutes southeast, free to attend, with the parade stepping off from Webber Elementary at noon and ending at the town hall where the festival grounds are. Floats, antique cars, live performers and a lot of barbecue. In recent years the town has paired it with a Friday-night JAMfest concert, which is ticketed separately, so the Saturday parade and festival remain the free part.

Johnston Peach Blossom Festival Parade

Edgefield County's peach festival, run by volunteers for more than forty years and held in historic downtown Johnston, about an hour west of Columbia. The day opens at nine with crafters and food vendors, the parade steps off at ten, and a cruise-in of classic cars, antique tractors and old pickups fills a downtown lot afterwards. There is also a bass fishing tournament and a beauty pageant attached to the festival. Midway rides run the two evenings beforehand and are ticketed separately.

South Carolina Poultry Festival Parade

The biggest parade on this list by unit count: more than a hundred entries down Main Street in Leesville on the Saturday morning, part of a three-day festival that closes with fireworks. It celebrates an industry rather than a crop, and the food follows: chicken on a stick is the thing people drive in for. Around it there are three stages of music, a hundred-plus craft vendors, a Thursday one-price ride night, a Friday street dance, a 5K, a car and tractor show and a chicken calling contest. Held the weekend before Mother's Day, about forty minutes west of Columbia.

Sumter Iris Festival Parade

One of South Carolina's longest-running festivals, set in Swan Lake Iris Gardens when the Japanese irises are in bloom, about forty-five minutes east of Columbia. The Saturday parade runs from Alice Drive and Miller Road down to the civic center, and the gardens themselves hold three days of concerts, craft and plant vendors and children's activities. It draws bus tours from as far as Canada, so parking at the gardens is limited and the city runs free shuttles from the civic center. Admission and parking are both free.